1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ice maker, and more particularly to an ice maker control method for completely separating from an icing container the ice frozen by the ice maker in a freezing chamber to thereby increase an ice-separating efficiency, and furthermore for evenly storing the ice in an ice storage tray when the ice is separated from the icing container, so that ice storing capacity of the storage tray can be improved.
2. Description of Prior Art
Generally, an ice maker is an apparatus wherein cold air is supplied to water to freeze the same, thereby producing the ice when the water is supplied from a water supplier to an icing container, so that the ice can be stored in the storage tray.
Meanwhile, the ice maker is disposed with a capacity ice detecting unit in order to prevent the ice from overflowing from the ice storage tray.
The capacity ice detecting unit detects whether the ice is fully loaded in the storage tray before the ice is separated from the icing container.
If packed ice is detected by the detecting unit, ice separation is not performed, nor is the water supplied.
However, in one conventional ice maker (see FIG. 6) the container 1 is manipulated (i.e., twisted only once during each) ice separating operation for separating the ice from the icing container, where by there my result an incomplete separation of the ice from the container.
If the water is re-supplied to the container while the ice is not fully separated from the container, an amount of water (i.e., as much as the volume of the remaining ice) will overflow the container.
Furthermore, as shown in FIG. 6 the container is always rotated in the same direction to separate the ice, thereby accumulating the ice cubes on one side in the storage tray, so that there frequently occur occasions where the detecting unit detects the storage tray as being full when actually it is not, causing an icing operation stoppage.
In other words, as illustrated in FIG.6, the ice 8 separated from the container 1 is accumulated on one side in the storage tray 4, so that a capacity ice detecting lever 5 is prevented from moving to the lower side ("C" direction) by the ice 8 during detection of the capacity ice.
Accordingly, an occasion where the ice 8 is not fully loaded in the storage tray 4 is interpreted as a full state causing the icing not to be realized.
In Japanese laid open patent application No. Tokai Hei 4(1992)-260764 entitled "Automatic-Ice Producing Apparatus", a technique is disclosed for separating completely the ice from the container.
In the apparatus in accordance with the Japanese Patent the water is stored in an icing dish for icing, and the icing dish is rotated to an ice-separating position by a driving unit after the water is iced for separation of the ice, In particular, the driving unit twists the icing dish 1 (see FIG. 6) in a reverse rotational direction at the start of ice-separation operation ("A" direction in FIG. 6) and then twists the same in the right direction ("B" direction in FIG.6) to twist the dish at a predetermined angle (.beta.) from the ice-separation position, so that the ice can be separated from the container.
An ice-separation rate therefore is considerably improved as the dish is twisted to the left and right for separation of the ice.
However, even in the Japanese Patent No. 4-260764, the ice separation is performed only in one direction, so that the ice is accumulated on one side in the storage tray, thus reducing the ice-storing capability of the storage tray.